Chapter 6: New Twins

I wake up strapped to a metal table and immediately begin struggling. After a few minutes of struggling a girl enters the room and looks at me. "Calm down, Twenty-Seven. We're just giving you a simple injection. Nothing to panic about."

"No! Those bring nothing but pain and torture! If you come near me with a needle I'll kill you!" I snarl at her as I try to get out of the restraints and feel Scarlet Witch start watching through my eyes.

"Shh, it's ok." she says soothingly as she approaches me with the needle. "It's alright. This injection will just give you two abilities that Toby tried too give you. It will give you a healing ability and technopathy, it won't hurt you."

She pins my arm, holding it still as she finds a vein and injects me with the strange liquid. I wince before my world goes black again. When I wake up I'm in the white room again, only this time I'm strapped to the bed. I sigh and think to my, hopefully temporary, twins, 'How long was I out after she injected me?'

'Two hours.' Scarlet Witch tells me. 'We found your location but the traffic to the airport is torture.'

'Why didn't you just ask the X-Men to use the X-Jet?' I ask her and receive silence in response.

'We didn't think of that.' Pedro says awkwardly.

I sigh before looking over as the door unlocks and a tall girl with brown hair and blue eyes comes into the room and smiles at me, "Hello, Twenty-Seven. It's nice to officially meet you. We've met before but you were just a baby at the time. I'm the one who oversaw your initial study. My name is Esme Dunn. I own the company Gen Seven Laboratories."

"Don't call me that." I tell her, glaring as I try to get out of the restraints. "What did that injection do to me and what do you want?"

"Oh we just wanted to give you that injection, along with something else as well." she says with a smirk before pulling out a glowing orb. "This is some memories from your past life. Someone involved in said life requested that you receive them when we meet next. Now, I'm going to set the orb in your hand and leave the room. Once I'm out of the room the restrains will release you. I want you to crush the orb in your hand, that will transfer the information in the orb into your mind." She sets the orb in my hand and smiles at me. "Soon as you're done remembering just knock on the door and I will let you out and give you your things back."

She leaves and the metal restraints release. I get up and look at the orb, 'I know you two were listening in, what do you think?'

'If they're going to let you go after you do that then I say go for it. It will be easier to get you if you aren't locked in a room.' Wanda says and I nod before crushing the orb in my hand and watch as the world melts away. I feel the mind link close and assume that its part of the orbs abilities or something.

I'm sitting in a field watching the most beautiful woman I have ever seen train against three other people, who I can tell are friends of mine. The woman is a tall brunette with an athletic build. I can't see them from where I'm at but I know that her eyes are a shade of brown that looks like liquid gold in firelight. I feel someone sit next to me and realize that I'm an adult in this flashback thing.

I turn to the person who sat with me and find a woman with black hair and blue eyes. She smiles at me and opens her mouth to speak but the scene changes before she can. I go through all the memories and the same blue eyed girl features in every one. My mind provides the name Sigyn for her and I figure out that she was my best friend. When I come out of the flashbacks I get up off the ground, where I apparently fell. I walk over and knock on the door.

A few moments pass before the door opens and I see Esme Dunn and the girl who gave me the injection earlier standing there. I glare at both of them before asking, "How long was I out?"

"Thirteen hours and forty-five minutes." the girl who gave me the injection earlier tells me. "I'm Lauren Dunn by the way."

I yawn before re-opening the mental link to my twins and asking them, 'Are you here?'

'Yeah. You're ok, right?' Scarlet Witch tells me.

'I'll be out soon.' I tell her before looking at Esme, "How far from here is the exit?"

"About a fifteen minute walk. Right this way." she begins walking and I follow her. "Are you hungry? You haven't eaten all day."

"Thanks for the offer but I've had enough of expired bread and what I think might have been soup at one point for one lifetime." I tell her. "I'll get food once I'm home."

"Right, we heard about that. Toby wasn't a good person to put in charge. We were told that the children were treated right, but I never thought to check. I'm sorry that you went through that. My wife tells me that you seemed frightened and angered by the thought of a power injection. Those were meant to be a painless procedure given as rewards for good behavior. Then again the children were also supposed to be taken from orphanages. Toby sent the team that got you and told us you were an orphan." Esme tells me with a frown. "I shouldn't have placed that much trust in him, but he was my little brother. I was hoping you could tell me how he died, was it in the storm that destroyed the lab?"

"Most likely." her apparent wife says, "No one survived that."

"No he died hours earlier. I killed him." I tell them with a smirk. "He injected me with a liquid that gave me the ability to control what I call Hellfire."

I show them a few of the black flames and Lauren looks angry, "That was experimental! That wasn't supposed to move onto human testing until we figured out it's exact properties and possible downfalls!" she says before her angered expression turns to one of concerned thoughtfulness, "That explains the strange findings in the body scan we gave you."

"What findings?" I ask her and she hesitates. "I can handle bad news; just tell me."

She sighs and says, "It seems that the Hellfire ability is too hot for your body to handle. You seem to be lasting longer than most would but even at it's currently slow rate you will most likely die by the time you turn twenty."

I blink, then scowl before saying, "So that means that I have a little bit under twelve years to find a way to live past my twentieth."

"We can help if you want." Esme offers and I glare at her.

"I don't trust you." I tell her as we arrive at a security checkpoint where a two other people walk up, both holding bags and looking ready to go as a guard hands Esme a duffel bag before whispering something in her ear. She nods to him and I look at the two that walked up to us. The first is a tall girl with dark skin, black hair, and eyes that look like lava. The other is a boy younger than me with tan skin, blonde hair, and bright blue eyes. I recognize them instantly and feel my eyes go wide, "Harsh, Stone Breaker? You're alive?"

"Alive and coming with you." Esme says as the guard hands me a box, "The guards decided to give you an apology gift. Some of the inventions Toby made you crate. Your favorites, apparently." she hands me the duffel bag and a cell phone, "Our sponsor wants you to have this. She'll call you soon."

I look at her before nodding and following them out with Harsh and Stone Breaker. We make it to the gate and I see two annoyed looking eight year old's standing there with Avalanche. I smile sheepishly at them before saying, "Sorry about that." I walk out of the gate and we go to the car and I climb into the back seat and see Scarlet Witch trying to climb into the front seat. "I think you should let Avalanche drive."

She scowls at me and says, "I know how to drive."

"I know that. But people tend to frown upon eight year old's driving when there's someone who is closer to an adult in the vehicle." I tell her and she sighs before climbing into the backseat with the boy my age, who I assume is Pedro, Harsh, Stone Breaker, and me. I look at Avalanche and say, "Take us back to the X-Jet or whatever you took to get here."

"Aren't you supposed to say please?" Pedro, asks teasingly.

"Shock doesn't make requests of her minions." Stone Breaker says, "She just makes them comply."

I nod while stretching a bit before looking at Scarlet Witch, who is pouting while looking out the window. I smile and say, "Look on the bright side."

She looks over at me and asks, "What bright side?"

"You get a redo on most of your life." I tell her cheerfully. "As well as a nice big family that won't shove you in a mental asylum because of your mutation." she gives me a confused look. "I saw your memories earlier while I was asleep."

"Oh." she says with a small frown. "Ok then."

The car ride falls silent and we get to the X-Jet, where I see Bobby, Raine, Ma, and Dani all waiting in it. The car stops and Avalanche gets out before opening the door for me and the others. I watch the others get out of the car before climbing out myself and grabbing my new twins by the wrists, dragging them over to Ma as the other two follow and saying, "These are your children now."

I hear someone land on the car behind us and turn to face the noise, seeing Magneto who glares down at me, "I don't think their living arrangements are up to you, girl."

I chuckle and release my twins before walking over and setting one of my hands on the car. I then look up into his eyes and release some electricity into the metal of the car. He starts spasming and lets out a scream of pain so I let go of the car and stop the electricity. He falls to the ground next to me and I lean down next to him. "Do not speak to me like that again, Magneto. I was raised, tortured, and experimented on for the purpose of killing you. Those two are now my twins, you will let them be raised by my ma or I will do just that." He glares at me and I make more electricity crackle between my fingers, "Say yes or you get another jolt."

"Fine." he says. "They can live with you."

"Thank you." I get up and walk back to the others. "He said they can live with us, let's go."

I climb into the jet and sit down. The others walk in, Scarlet Witch taking the seat to my right with Pedro, whose mutant name is apparently Quicksilver, on her right and Raine sitting to my left as Ma goes to pilot, Harsh and Stone Breaker sit across from us and I smile at them. When we get to the mansion my siblings all come out and I smile at them, "Hey guys, this is Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver; they're my new twins. I'm pretty sure you remember the other two."

Aeolus hugs Harsh and Stone Breaker before saying, "You can't just adopt anyone you meet."

"I was desperate!" I defend as I look at the Professor, "Quicksilver and Harsh can share with Jekyll and Hyde. Scarlet Witch and Stone Breaker stay with me and Artemis."

"I'll make the arrangements. Welcome to the school." he says to newest residents before we enter.